Local Fire Department Open House

Our 4yo Benjamin is constantly playing with fire. PRETEND fire, that is. That’s because he’s a fire fighter. Or, err…a fire CHIEF.

So a few weeks ago we went to the Fire Department Open House, located at their training facility, and watched the fire fighters demonstrate all things fire safety related.

Needless to say, he was very impressed.

Even our little toddler stopped squirming when they demonstrated a live fire extinguishing exercise! Click here for the 35 second movie.

There were other demonstrations as well, including one guy who, with the help of all the pint-sized fire fighters in the audience, dressed himself in his protective gear. The kids got a real kick out of it since not only did they get to speak up, but they also learned some neat terminology.

For anyone interested in all things fire related, the Kids Firefighter Blog has a collection of fantastic fire related pictures, movies, and games. Which is why we linked to there for this post…hope you enjoyed.

How do tv commercials affect preschoolers?

What this post is not:

A scientific, statistically proven, expert-driven, academic or otherwise opinionated analysis of why tv shows with commercials are not recommended for small children.

What this post is:

A personal observation of how the continuous interruption of tv commercials affected my children’s behaviour.

There’s something about daddy

I do not know what the difference is between the last few days, or the last two years. But for some reason, lately our toddler insists on daddy for everything.

Make no mistake, this is no skin off MY back. Go ahead, little girl! I say.

Suits me just fine.

But then she comes up with these lines…take today. He went to pick her up at the Montessori daycare at noon and arrived back at the house at the same time as I did with the preschooler.

While Benjamin was dilly dallying about taking his shoes off, washing his hands, that sort if thing, I’m getting lunch ready.

Sonja is standing near the closet door. She’s unwilling, or unable, to get her jacket off. I offer to help. She glances at her dad, looks at me, then glares at me. She then decides to wander over to her daddy and says to me, in the whiniest voice she can muster up:

Noooooo, I don’t waaaant YOUR help. YOU are STINKY.

Ahem.

On disciplining toddlers

I have a new discipline technique. And although this method seems to be working with my toddler, for now anyway, I guarantee nothing in terms of its effectiveness on other children. All I’m saying is that for the moment, the light in my 2yo has finally clicked on. When I reprimand her for a crime using this method, she at least appears to recognize and respect the fact that

1. her mommy is very serious and in no joking mood, and
2. it may be a good idea to pay attention while mommy is so serious, and
3. there is no point in trying to negotiate, whine or complain

The idea behind my technique comes from a passage I read in Vicki Iovine’s toddler book, The Girlfriends’ Guide to Toddlers. In it, at some point or another, she described a method she witnessed (or was told about later) about one of her Girlfriends that hit home with me. In essence, the mother’s issue with her toddler was similar to what I’m experiencing oh, say, every 10 minutes of the day, but which includes the very criminal “not listening” and “obeying a command” when danger is imminent.

We are reading!

Both kids, but especially the toddler, like this book. It’s a rhyme with a neat little tempo, and the story is just so cute. And the pictures! The pictures! I love all the detail…why can’t I have seven children??

 

Here’s a book I picked out just for fun. Although I have no intensions of moving my family to a hamlet out in the middle of nowhere living off grid and eating homegown and homeground granola or what have you, this book is EXCELLENT on so many levels for anyone who is interested in anything to do with self-sufficiency, self-reliance, gardening even on a small scale, nature, whole food, cooking, and any number of related topics. What’s really fascinating about this woman is how she wrote the book(s) (while pregnant and with numerous children, and animals, about her constantly). It’s up to its 10th edition and full of website links.  Carla Emery is her name…

 

I’m also reading this book. I just happened to see it on the shelf at the library and figured, hey, I immerse myself in self-made misery often enough, why not see what it’s all about? I like him…he’s easy to read and brings in all kinds of real examples, from his family to other, participating families.

Halloween crafts with preschoolers and toddlers

Halloween never meant much to me BC (before children). I mean, sure, I liked the candy, or the idea of candy at least. But considering that I’ve researched what goes IN some candies these days make me not only not want to eat it, but also keep it from the kids.

Of course the 4yo will have issues with that.  But we’ll cross that bridge later.

In the meantime, I still have to keep these little monkeys occupied and stimulated while they are home with me. So what’s a mother to do?

Why, crafts, of course!

I don’t know where I got the idea to make these spider-like bugs. Probably a combination of googleing and pondering during the many hours of peace and silence I enjoy each day (enter loud and hysterical laughter).

Anyway, I was at the Dollar Store and saw black pipe cleaners. Once I got home I saw stuff that needs to be thrown out, so I kept a black garbage bag aside after purging to my heart’s content (enter more hysterical laughter). The funky eyeballs I had in my craft bin, and there are always old newspapers hanging around in every nook and cranny of this house.

Here’s how it’s done:

Get the child to crumble up the newspaper into a ball.
Cut the garbage bag into a square that is large enough to cover the newspaper ball.
Tie the four ends at the bottom (the spider’s tummy).
Use the scissors to punch holes into the plastic-covered newspaper, near the bottom where the knot is, and feed the pipe cleaner through. Those will be the legs.
You will have to twist the pipe cleaner to stay in place if you have a toddler who likes to pull things out of things.
Attach the eyeballs with some glue.

* * *

Another day, Benjamin started bugging while I was busy flickring and picniking. So I pulled out black and orange paper and helped him cut them into strips. We were going to make a garland.

Cutting paper has been something he enjoyed doing for many years. They teach cutting with real scissors at Montessori to toddlers, and with supervision, you’d be surprised how quickly they master this tricky skill. Using tape or glue just adds to the fun!

While he was busy cutting and taping, I used the strips of paper to teach him some simple addition and subtraction.

* * *

Of course cutting paper that is folded in half, making interesting holes to peek through, is a big hit too. So one night after dinner, when there was little effort on their part to play quietly, I pulled out paper and scissors and had them sit at the table. I had no clue what to make, and just starting fooling around with the paper. Before you knew it, we had this on our living room wall:

I’m really enjoying this preschool age. He is such a sponge when it comes to learning new things, and introducing him to new things has stimulated me beyond my wildest imagination.

As far as the 2yo is concerned, she wants to participate, and so I let her. Not that I have an option here…but she is very interested, and as long as she doesn’t destroy other people’s stuff, I can usually find something to keep her occupied as well. She loves glueing, she likes taping tape to paper, she’s trying to manipulate the scissors, and when she gets bored, I give her things to sort, or count.

So far, so good. And our house is all decorated with homemade stuff!

Toddler bedtime

It’s 9 o’clock at night. The toddler refuses to settle down and go to sleep.

I’m tired, sick and fed up. I wrap herself into blankets, arm myself with tissues and heating pad, and pick up a book to read.

Sonja arrives. Assesses the situation. Leaves.

I start reading my book.

She returns with her own books.

Sonja: Mommy read this book to me.
Me: Ok, one book, and then it’s bedtime.

Sonja: Mommy read nother book to me.
Me: No more books. I will read books to you tomorrow. It’s bedtime.

Sonja: You tired?
Me: Yes, I’m tired. It’s bedtime.

Sonja: You need coffee!

Winter salad with beets

With varying degrees of flu-like sickness making the rounds in this family, we’ve been focusing a lot on eating fresh fruits and veggies. Besides the obvious nourishing soups these ingredients can provide, I’ve also been making a lot of salads like this:

The trick to eating daily salads with a lot of chopped veggies, which is time consuming under the best of times but more of a pain during the whiny-crying-clingy-sick-children phase, is to do bulk chopping once or twice a week. Store these bite-sized pieces in the fridge. When it comes time to composing your salad, just throw a handful of each type on top of the greens, and you’re good to go.

Winter Salad with beets

For each serving, you need:

1-2 handfuls of greens (think mesclun, spinach, or a mix of lettuces)
a bit of arugula, bitter green, mustard greens, or fresh herbs (like parsley, watercress)
1 handful of at least two chopped veggies (choose peppers, tomatos, cucumbers, carrots, fennel)
chopped apple or pear (optional)
a sprinkling of good-quality feta cheese
some pickled or roasted beets*
a tbsp seeds (sunflower, pumpkin) or nuts (hazelnut, almond, walnut)
a drizzle of each balsamic vinegar and olive oil

*You can use raw beets and grate them, or chop them very fine, if the beets are fairly small and fresh. Alternatively, the next time you bake or roast something in the oven, throw some larger beets in a separate baking dish, cover with foil, and roast along with it. Cool completely, peel, and use in the salad. Or, if you have access to a good quality, not too vinegary pickled beet, that will  do in a flash as well.

Public school isn’t free

In case you were wondering.

Oh no. It’s not free at all. It’s actually astonishing just how much they push these kids toward this idea of getting mom and dad to spend money.

Oh, it’s always for a good cause. Or for a good charity. Or for the benefit of the school. Or any other such thing.

But it’s still all about money.

Less than a month since my 4 year old started Junior Kindergarten, we are invited to the open house.

I asked Benjamin if he knew what an open house was. I wondered what, if anything, the teacher might have mentioned to the kids.

Benjamin said “oh yes, the open house is when we go shopping for books in the library”.

Shopping?

I realized later that he meant the book fair hosted by Scholastic. He brought home a “wish list” where he was encouraged to “shop” for books and have the teacher send the list home to the parents so that the parents “can decided” whether to purchase the books on the wish list, or not. It’s totally the parents’ ultimate decision, of course. No pressure. They’re just helping along with the decision making.

The majority of books in the advertisement attached to the wish list were, according to my own humble opinion, crap. Really. A lot of it was Nickelodeon advertisement. The book Ben picked wasn’t on their ad, but it’s a title I recognized. He had taken that book out of the library once or twice before. I see no reason to pick up this book for $4.50 no matter how good a deal it is.

Encouraging small children to shop for books in a school library, getting them to push the parents to purchase those books for them, and then feeling like they have done good because they have succeeded in getting a child “interested in books”, and then letting the parents be the “bad guy” for not agreeing to purchase said books, is just not what I have envisioned public school to be like.

Especially not in the Junior Kindergarten scene.

The truth about my parenting style

When I carefully reflect upon my parenting style, this comes to mind:

source: myspace

I try very hard to stick to a method of parenting, particularly in the discipline department, that makes sense to them (and to me). I try very hard to give them clear instructions in phrases that both can understand. I try very hard to keep my sanity when my method fails.